30 Day Challenge Take 2

So it's been a little short of two weeks since my knee surgery and i've been chopping at the bit and today I started back at it after a short stint away, My gym membership is frozen until next month so what a more perfect time then to start 3 new 30 day challenges! I'll be doing a plank, squat and ab challenge, I found one that I really like because instead of progessively increasing it is completely random, one day I could be doing 50 squats and 90 abs and the next it could be 25 squats and 180 abs, I plan on mixing up the exercises as well, for example if it says do 50 squats I might do 25 regular squats and 25 plie squats just to mix it up, keep my body guessing. I've even created a calendar to help remind me to do my exercises each day and also keep my running schedule, yesterday my goal was to do 3.5 miles and I surpassed that goal!! I did 6.03 miles in less than 2 hours which is better than my last 6 mile run/walk time. I definitely pushed myself which I need to do more often, there is only 9 days left in my monthly challenge to do 30 miles in 30 days and as of right now i'm only 4.02 miles behind Brian, I may not reach 30 miles in 9 days but i'm sure going to do my best to atleast beat him ha ha. I love running, I just wish I could run longer (it's not just the knee, I seem to get winded easily so I have to stop and just walk to catch my breath) I know it's a work in process and in a year i'll be running long distances without stopping but for right now it sucks, I think my method that I use to run longer and longer is helping my endurance though, and i'm pretty proud because right now in Brian's neighborhood I can run from his house all the way to the first stop sign which is about 3 blocks. Essentially what I do is I pick a mark, a sign, a house, a bush whatever that up ahead in the distance and I tell myself run to there and stop, sometimes I keep running and I keep making my mark farther and farther away until I can't run anymore and then I stop and walk for a bit then start running again, i'm not sure if it has to do with the weather or my breathing (which is not as easy to control when your running btw all you new runners know what i'm talking about) I think weather does play a part and we Oregonians don't have a steady climate, one day its sunny the next its raining and then the day after that we get a snow storm. Running in cold weather is not easy and afterwards I feel like I just dry cleaned my lungs (not a pleasant feeling for sure) Either way it felt good to be out and running again, the only downside was the fact that the water fountains that are in downtown Oregon City were not working so I definitely was dying of thirst. At the end of it all I was sweaty, tired and I felt like I wanted to collapse but i'm glad I did it. I was planning on running today but its literally pouring outside as I type this and while I don't mind running in cold weather running in pouring down rain just isn't smart to me. I've only done my challenges for 2 days and i'm already feeling it, sore is definitely the new sexy and I cannot wait to re-measure myself! As of yesterday when I started my measurements were 46" hips 44" waist and 13.5" arms, part of me wants to re-configure my challenge schedule and add and arm challenge in there as well so that way i'll be covering all the major muscle groups. My arms are definitely one of my major trouble spots and while planking does help work your entire body I don't know if it will give me the desired results that i'm looking for if i'm only doing that whereas incorporating weighted arm exercises like tricep dips etc will help me get rid of the excessive amount of underarm fat I have.....lol. I'm ending this post on that note, can't wait to update you all in 28 days!!! :)

Here's the calendar I told you about!